RallycrossRX 2015

[chunder]

Ahvenisto was an awesome place, some great racing there nad the road circuit is great too!

Not sure why you dont like it really, was a bit fraught at times I will admit!

It's not a car park track for sure!

[Hickey]

Originally Posted by rallycrossnl

Can't find said video of the tree overgrown track yet.
Found this tho, a less then permanent rxtrack to put it mildly. 1983 EM 22.05.83 Ahveniston Moottorirata Hämeenlinna FIN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIxGF6g_i7k
Good for B-boys and peeps who love mega-offs. Interview about the magic yellow porsche... track-safety? can you eat that?

Looks like a couple of single make series in there too. Surely not? Not in the halcyon group B days?!

[rx-guru]

Some people judge venues they have never visited by old video clips and nowadays 'standards', pfff...
Ahvenisto was the best place I have ever been to in the old ERC days of the 1980s and 1990s.
Mondello was also a great venue back in the days.

[chunder]

I agree Ed, Mondello was super fast, and had some great corners. Actually would rather be going there than Lydden which does not really lend itself to modern rallycross and the joker is appalling there.

Folk race is doing well in Finland too, found some great videos of that on youtube, but the cars are fairly serious, seem more developed than Norway and Sweden cars, Blokes running Imps and the like!

About time we had some decent Finns in rallycross, Topi for me doesn't quite hit the mark.

But then they all race in teams and lose individualty, such a shame.

[Hickey]

It's a bit like judging the modern events against the backdrop of the group B days without going to the circuits, isn't it Eddie; I think that's the point some are trying to make on here over the last page or so.

Anyway, onwards and upwards to a very healthy looking Mettet entry. I look forward to seeing the circuit for myself.

[kurski]

Originally Posted by rallycrossnl

Have there been interviews or quotes by the likes of Martin Schanche, Matty Alamäki, Seppo Niittymäki etc about todays RX?

I try to get Alamäki interview, he has worked in recent years Kuismanen Competition and Foracer Driving Simulator

[chunder]

To be hair Hickey, I know you do a lot of travelling to watch rallycross, and let's be honest I guess you would watch a lot more than most would here if you could. Fair play to you, there are far more interesting things I would travel to watch and I do not travel much. You love everything about rallycross and a lot of tracks are benefitting from that both here and abroad.

My reasons are my own. WRX is turning into a whole different thing I expected when I was excited about it two years ago. You might think it's good. I would simply prefer them to build slowly, not go for the jugular instantly. there is no thought of legacy, future, only of now.

I do not want to be hemmed into a giant grandstand watching distant races, some would, they like comfort, sitting down, not me. I like to walk round the whole track, the paddock, stick my ore into garages, get aksed to move! etc. It's why I would never dream of paying to watch things like F1, MotoGP, Le Mans etc as you can't usually get near those areas in competition.

If this is the way rallycross has to be, they lose a fan at WRX level and they will lose drivers eventually when the money runs out. I am just thankful I experienced the good times as I saw them.

[chunder]

Matti seems like a decent fella, he sometimes puts up pics and the like on his facebook page.

Problem is I do not think English is or ever was easy for him, and he seems a little humble and quiet.

He aint bad on a sim though!

[BudLightJaguar]

Originally Posted by chunder

and he seems a little humble and quiet.

Alamäki has always been only a sportsman. Not really any kind of promoter for the RX, neither he's the kind of fella participating in celebrity games shows or selling his private life for tabloids.

[rx-guru]

One thing is very important, Hickey. There was Rallycross before July 1996, and there is completely different Rallycross ever since that fatal accident at Essay in France. One cannot judge the old venues by the FIA track standards that have changed our sport so much.

[1975DCS]

Originally Posted by USRallycross

According to many on here you can never improve on the 1980's. You raise a good point re first corner at Brands, first corner at Estering, joke of a first corner at Pembrey but rose tinted glasses make the past look excellent. Of course they also forget that for most of those years unless you were there you never saw rallycross - no end of season reviews and certainly no live coverage.

I watch Rallycross since 1989 and yes the late Group B era was good, due to impressive cars! There was also variety in engines and so and the cars made distinctive noises.

But yes Rallycross have faced ups and down since. Cars went really ugly with half cut spoilers in 1997 and I really hate the 45 mm restrictor introduced back than as it really doesn't benefit safety at all. I hate it, because the engines are already small compared to "Super" cars in other motorsports.

And nowadays these cars weigh 400 kgs more! Why??! It basically means that all technology over the years minus the rules have resulted in about the same as then! What a waste of technology as modern Rallycross are better and could be so quick by now, not just on the corners but on the straights too! Imo the rules makes cars more expensive as they need to be.

Eddi was surprised about the EKS Audi being slower than the older Ford, well I am not surprised, despite faster gearbox, more grip, better suspension, ALS and a lot more torque there is a lot of weight to be carried around.

The problems about cars is similar to other disciplines, handling is now so good that the power can't upset it, making cars look like on a Playstation and with DSR on F1 it is even worse. I want to see tyres fight for traction, cars flying down the straights. Luckily enough in Rallycross it's better than circuit racing. We still have some flames and ALS rumble!

And although I love the fact that you can now see a lot more Rallycross online I am not so keen on how old tracks are being waved goodbye and Rallycross becomes an side or stadium event. I will go to Mettet next weekend and after years of Maasmechelen I really hope to be close to the action, but I really fear we're sitting to far away.

I don't like it that all attention now goes to "teams" or a selected group of drivers. When that Austrian Fiesta driver was on the pace, I would love to hear his thoughts, not about how Solberg or Bakkerud did...

I am afraid that with the likes of Solberg and there non audible tents, the idea of an sport where the drivers and cars are in close contact to the audience are now a thing of the past... Shame for car or technical enthusiasts!

So yeah, I feel what some are saying, it is not all bad, it still Rallycross! But 15 years I would have love to see every race outside the Benelux, now I would only be interested in Sweden and France, for the 1st time England is out for me...

[chunder]

One of the issues is tyres and always has been for me, quite why we have to use grooved tyres when most tracks have masses of asphalt is beyond me. They wear more, adn using them takes away one of the old skills of cutting tyres and how tracks develop. Most tracks now have gravel for 1 heat then it is all swept away, so its like rough concrete or broken tar.

A few years back you had guys like Isachsen routinely using 2, 60 grand engines per meeting, multiple turbos and gearboxes and only using 6 tyres, it's rather silly!

As for tracks and teams, that is the IMG way, they are trying to take the sport to the masses, to places people not into rallycross might know. That is a good idea, but they have simply priced the old sport out of the calendar, what price progress? None it seems.

Comparisons between cars are pointless, Group B was off the shelf, cheap relatively. Modern cars are bespoke, heavy, very complicated to run, but far cheapr than WRC, hence the boom. IMG saw a gap in the market and exploited it nicely.

[rx-guru]

Originally Posted by 1975DCS

Eddi was surprised about the EKS Audi being slower than the older Ford, well I am not surprised, despite faster gearbox, more grip, better suspension, ALS and a lot more torque there is a lot of weight to be carried around.

I was not surprised, but as all WRX teams currently talk about 600bhp and 0 to 60mph in less than 2 seconds I was waiting for serious proofs. Serious for me is for example tested by a well-known magazine like AUTO MOTOR und SPORT (the recent EKS test) or Teknikens Värld (the 1984 Schanche test). The Marklund video test is also quite okay. Of course 600bhp reads better for the media than 560+bhp, and under 2 seconds reads better than 2.2 or 2.3 seconds. But I want the facts, no PR claims. Similar prob with the Hockenheim crowd figure, 75,000+ people. I guess that was the figure for the entire weekend. But I would like to know how many paying people were there on Sunday. I've been in sold-out football stadiums with almost 50,000 seats. That was really something and far above all crowds I've ever seen in Rallycross, may it be Lohéac (claimed 72,000+ people in 2013...), Höljes or Brands Hatch for the RX Grand Prix's. They cannot blow their figures up just to impress the media, sold-out is sold-out. Another thing is when people talk about bhp figures of the old days. I'm not interested in what peak an engine reached on the dyno before it was f*cked, but how many horses the cars had while racing on a Rallycross track.

[chunder]

Very true Ed

I know for a fact that Gollop rarely ran with more than 600hp on track after the starts, it just wasn't needed. A lot of the guys back then would turn the wick up a lot at the starts, then turn it back down in the races after the race settled. Alamaki being one, Schance too and the Xtrac cars.

But transmissions could not take that, neither could tyres either and that was when rallycross tyre tech was pretty good with lots of competition between Yokohama, Avon and M+H.

The worst car for this was Martinsen's BMW, crazy quotes of 7-800hp power figures and the infamous wheel smoke in every gear heat from Brands when most of it was the tyre rubbing against the arch. The damn thing hardly lasted a meeting, proof indeed that power never means everything.

Crowd wise, I never believe a word IMG says in releases, so never believed any of the stuff or evne read it to be honest.

"voice of rallycross" For Gods sake man have some respect.

[1975DCS]

Originally Posted by rx-guru

I was not surprised

Sorry I know what you ment, couldn't find the right English word for it... But totally agree, there is no proof to back-up the claims!

Most articles I've read are above the 2 seconds and the test in Echappement for Ligiers championship winning ZX even above 3. The CCC magazine also did some serious test. In my opinion I consider every SuperCar to be fast, but the claims...

[FIRE]

Touring car and GT driver Jaap van Lagen will test the JRM Mini in near future.

[USRallycross]

Looking at practice times this morning and noticed that Liam is missing. Also that on the heat 1 grid sheets he has been dropped as well.

Is it too early here and I am missing something or is he missing and if so what happened as saw on his FB page that he was going to Germany.

Mark

[BMRT]

Noticed on another site that Doran was refused to start for failing to comply with time limits or something along those lines ..

[chunder]

Lol, bit of a shower the last couple of years eh.

How can you go from being one of the sports top talents to being so average I dont know.

Think it might be time for him to go where he belongs, drifting, off road, America perhaps

[Pozi]

Originally Posted by USRallycross

Looking at practice times this morning and noticed that Liam is missing. Also that on the heat 1 grid sheets he has been dropped as well.

Is it too early here and I am missing something or is he missing and if so what happened as saw on his FB page that he was going to Germany.

Mark

Looking at the rules it appears he did not get to scrutineering or did not present all the FIA documentation in time and was subsequently excluded.

[USRallycross]

I think I have to agree with Chunder on this one.

I can't imagine the conversation with Monster so soon after the ban last year. Something seriously wrong with team management to not get the car to tech on time.

Perhaps splitting time between the US and the UK and all the other distractions have taken their toll. They have spent a lot of money in the last couple of years without any great return.

Andy Scott seems to have a much better approach to running the team as business. Given his background hardly surprising but would love to see him make it. Another who has put a lot into the sport and is one of the good guys.

Mark

[chunder]

I agree with you about Mr Scott, but he does go through drivers at about the same rate as Doran did last year. And he did spend a lot of time early in his career driving anything anywhere and being about as invovled as you can be. So he should be doing well really.

I do hope Tohill has not been buggered by his time last year, he deserves a decent shot in a good car.

[Distracted]

Originally Posted by chunder

Lol, bit of a shower the last couple of years eh.

How can you go from being one of the sports top talents to being so average I dont know.

Think it might be time for him to go where he belongs, drifting, off road, America perhaps

He didn't do very well in the last American event he took part in either...

[rx4eva]

The whole rebuild the car the night before has worn thin and is back firing very hard now. no excuses really all the other teams were testing at holjes whilst liam was failing in america again!im afraid i fear the 'parts didnt turn up' is media friendly and the truth is he has been warned his cars are illegal for some time and the fia are out of patience

[rx4eva]

Dont get me wrong im a massive fan of liam and he is without doubt the greatest, richest talent the uk has had since will gollop which is why it frustrates me so much when the team is stretched beyond reasonsble limits for the sake of media coverage